Well and truly back from the dead, vinyl records are enjoying an astonishing renaissance.

Just this month, Taylor Swift's new album, The Tortured Poets Department, achieved an extraordinary feat by selling 859,000 vinyl copies in the US in its first week alone, setting a new record for the largest vinyl sales week in the modern era.

A go-to for DJs, audiophiles, and Swifties (that's Taylor Swift fans, for the uninitiated) alike, the physical format is effortlessly out-performing CDs in sales across multiple markets including the US. It's also returned to the UK inflation basket for the first time since 1992.

Read on to discover the history of vinyl – including its heyday and lowest points – and find out how the format began to recover during the late noughties before the recent full-on revival.

All dollar amounts in US dollars.

The story of the vinyl record began all the way back in 1877, when inventor Thomas Edison patented the phonograph, a device that could record and reproduce sound.

Early disc music records, nicknamed "78s" due to their playback speed of 78 revolutions per minute (rpm), were mostly made from shellac, a resin secreted by the female lac scale insect. They were notoriously brittle and therefore prone to breakage, and could hold a few minutes of music on each side.

In 1931, US record label RCA Victor debuted a long-playing (LP) record made from an early plastic called Vitrolac. Considered to be the first vinyl records, the company's "Program Transcription" discs had a playback speed of 33⅓ rpm and could hold 15 minutes of music per side.

The downside was that the discs wore out quickly. For this and other reasons, including a lack of consumer playback equipment, the LP failed to take off with the general public and the shellac-based record continued to dominate as the number-one audio format.

RCA Victor's arch-rival Columbia Records started developing vinyl technology in 1939, although shellac supplies dwindled during World War II. As a result, in 1948, America's most venerable record label introduced a 12-inch 33⅓ rpm LP disc made from durable polyvinyl chloride (PVC) instead.

Compared to the shellac disc, the new format had a quieter surface and more superior sound, and was far less brittle. It could hold an impressive 23 minutes of music on each side and was also more hard-wearing than RCA Victor's Vitrolac precursor.

Not to be outdone by its leading competitor, RCA Victor fought back in 1949, debuting its answer to Columbia's innovation: a seven-inch 45 rpm PVC record, which could store up to five minutes of music per side.

The two formats fought it out for several years in what became known as the "Battle of the Speeds" (also referred to as the "War of the Speeds"). In the end, Columbia's 12-inch LP became the predominant format for albums, with RCA Victor's seven-inch the pick for singles and extended play records (EPs).

The vinyl record's heyday lasted from the 1950s to the mid-80s.

In the US, vinyl single sales peaked in 1973 when 228 million units were sold, while sales of EPs and LPs reached their zenith at the height of the disco craze in 1978. That year, a total of 341.3 million units flew off the racks.

UK vinyl record sales also reached their high-water mark in 1978 when album sales hit a record £163 million, which translates to $1.08 billion (£848m) today.

Dutch consumer electronics company Philips introduced the two-spool cassette tape at the Berlin Radio Show in 1963 and launched the product in the US the following year.

Compact and ultra-portable, the format gradually gained in popularity but didn't hit the big-time until the introduction of the Sony Walkman in 1979. By 1984, cassettes had surpassed vinyl LPs as the predominant audio format in the US according to Billboard, hitting the top spot in the UK not long after.

As per a 2014 report published by Spin, vinyl shipments fell by half in the US between 1984 and 1988, with consumers increasingly opting to purchase cassette tapes instead.

It was a similar story in the UK. To the detriment of their vinyl counterparts, cassette album sales quintupled between 1978 and 1988. This trend played out in other markets too, including Canada and Australia.

In fact, global sales of vinyl albums, which peaked at 1.1 billion units in 1981, had sunk to 450 million by 1989, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

Vinyl appeared to be critically endangered by the end of the decade, with the compact disc (CD) taking the world by storm and even knocking the cassette tape off its pedestal.

Developed in the 1970s by Sony and Philips, the CD, which was based on existing LaserDisc technology and could store 80 minutes of music, debuted in 1982.

It took a while to catch on but in 1988, the CD surpassed the vinyl record in popularity and the following year it usurped the cassette tape, becoming the leading audio format.

Vinyl sales continued to tumble during the early 1990s, though the format was thrown a lifeline by the rave and hip-hop subcultures. Discerning audiophiles and collectors also continued to snap up vinyl records for their collections. 

That said, the format had become more niche and underground, losing its mainstream appeal to the futuristic CD.

Worldwide sales of vinyl albums dropped from 450 million units in 1989 to 109 million in 1993.

In 1995, a disappointing 33 million vinyl albums were shifted. Two years later, the number had almost halved to just 17 million.

Sales did pick up marginally again in 1998 – presumably thanks to the DJ-led dance music scene – but by this time, the glory days of vinyl seemed to be a distant memory.

Global vinyl revenues stood at just $73 million (£57m) in 2000, according to the IFPI. By this time, the MP3 file and dedicated player had been invented and Napster, the first widely used streaming service, was distributing "free" music via the internet, much to the chagrin of the music industry, which swiftly had it shut down. But the genie was out of the bottle.

The iPod was launched by Apple in 2001, sounding yet another death knell for vinyl, and the iTunes store made its debut in 2003. That same year, The Guardian ran a story bemoaning the demise of the record store.

With the rise of digital audio files and streaming services eating away at the market for physical formats, vinyl hit its nadir in 2006.

During vinyl's darkest year, global sales of the old-school physical format bottomed out at a paltry $28 million (£22m). IFPI data showed that vinyl's share of worldwide music industry revenue had fallen to just 0.2%.

Fortunately, vinyl's turnaround began shortly after, with global sales rising to $41 million (£32m) in 2007, representing an increase of 46% compared to 2006.

The media soon took notice. Wired and Billboard magazine were among the first to report on the phenomenon, with the latter running a cover story for its 21 November 2007 issue titled The iPod Generation Takes Vinyl For A Spin.

The Billboard piece, which opined that the resurgence was being driven by the older listener and younger indie-rock fan, quoted a number of hip millennials who waxed lyrical about the format's "coolness", not to mention its "organic" and "authentic" sound quality.

The magazine also highlighted an upswing in turntable sales, which, by 2011 had overtaken CD players (as reported by audio magazine Hi-Fi+).

Time then joined the fray, publishing a story on the vinyl comeback in January 2008.

In the words of its website, Record Store Day was dreamt up in 2007 to "celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently-owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally". The first annual awareness event took place on 19 April 2008.

Seen by many as a key driver of the resurgence of the format, the event "put rocket boosters under the vinyl revival and was a gamechanger", according to UK record store owner Ian De-Whytell, who was quoted on the subject by The Guardian last year.

Since its inauguration, the celebration has gone from strength to strength, helping to provide a much-needed boost to global vinyl sales.

In 2010, worldwide vinyl revenue came in at $79 million (£62m), up from $58 million (£46m) in 2008 and $62 million (£49m) in 2009.

During the 2010s, sales gathered momentum and by 2019, annual vinyl revenue had jumped to $687 million (£540m), marking an increase of over 1,000% compared to the previous decade.

Vinyl sales soared in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With the world in lockdown, music aficionados found themselves with more time to listen to albums at home, with many opting to expand their record collections as a result. While a significant number of retailers suffered at the time, record stores enjoyed buoyant sales.

That year, global vinyl revenues stood at $865 million (£679m), up 26% from 2019.

Since the pandemic, global vinyl sales have positively skyrocketed.

In 2021, they surpassed the billion-dollar mark, hitting $1.28 billion (£1bn), while revenues shot up to over $1.5 billion (£1.2bn) the year after.

In fact, 2022's sales were more than double what they were in 2019 and totalled more than the revenues of 2015, 2016, and 2017 combined, as confirmed by the IFPI. Figures collated by market research company IMARC Group show that global sales rose even further last year, coming in at around $1.8 billion (£1.4bn).

In 2022, vinyl out-performed CDs in the US for the first time since 1987.

Just over 41 million vinyl records were sold in the country that year, with sales reaching $1.2 billion (£943m). By way of contrast, just 33 million CDs were purchased, making the American music industry $483 million (£379m).

Likewise, vinyl sales surpassed CDs in the UK in 2022 for the first time in 35 years. Revenues reached $149 million (£116.8m), against CD sales of $125 million (£98.3m).

Vinyl has beaten CDs in other countries too, including Canada, Australia (where the old-school format surpassed CDs in 2021), and Spain. The format appears on-track to overtake CDs in other markets, such as France.

Vinyl's yoyo-ing popularity can be attributed to a number of factors.

As we've mentioned, the retro format is considered "cool" among younger generations, while older listeners revel in its nostalgia. The analogue sound quality is regarded as superior by many, lending tracks warmer tones and charming imperfections that digital recordings can never quite imitate.

Then there's the appeal of owning a tangible physical product, with the format's collectability and artwork strongly resonating with music enthusiasts.

On another note, vinyl offers listeners the opportunity to support their favourite artists in a more meaningful way, with musicians typically making considerably more money from vinyl releases than streaming play.

Whereas artists pull in just $0.004 (£0.003) on average per stream on a platform like Amazon Music, they can make up to 15% of the revenue from each vinyl record sold. And given that the typical vinyl LP can cost $30 (£24) to $40 (£31), the return is far greater...

The artists driving the vinyl resurgence are diverse and range from contemporary popstars to golden oldies.

Among them are the likes of Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Adele, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd. But one artist is head and shoulders above the rest: Taylor Swift.

Swift's adoring fans (the "Swifties" we mentioned earlier) are snapping up her vinyl LPs like crazy.

Last year, Swift shifted almost 3.5 million vinyl albums in the US, which represents 7% of all vinyl LPs sold in the country, according to Billboard. Swift's 1989 (Taylor's Version) was tops, followed by her version of Speak Now, and she also commanded the third spot with Midnights. The phenomenally popular artist also dominated the 2023 vinyl top 10s in the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, sold a staggering 859,000 vinyl copies in the US in its first week alone, marking the largest sales week for an album on vinyl in the modern era.

During the earlier part of this decade, the explosion in vinyl popularity led to enormous backlogs as demand massively outstripped supply, with pressing plants struggling to keep up.

Costs spiralled, supply chain issues were rife, and lesser-known artists were effectively priced out. In addition to that, worries over whether the vinyl renaissance could be sustained came to the fore.

These issues have now been resolved, however, says vinyl production industry bigwig Karen Emanuel, who spoke to Music Week in January.

According to Emmanuel, the backlog has been cleared once and for all. New pressing plants have opened in the US, UK, and Australia (as well as in other countries), while many existing factories have increased their number of pressing machines.

The process of pressing vinyl and distributing it is "smoother than ever", Emmanuel told Music Week.

Plus, elasticStage, the world's first on-demand vinyl manufacturer, is slated to launch this year in the UK.

With no upfront costs or minimum order sizes, it promises to slash the expense of producing vinyl records, which could be critical for smaller artists who are currently left out out of the vinyl resurgence.

While the rebirth of vinyl has been welcomed by many, the elephant in the room is its impact on the environment.

Challenging to recycle, PVC derives from oil and is responsible for much of the world's plastic pollution. Moreover, the carbon footprint of the typical vinyl record is considerable, with a 2019 study by the UK's Keele University finding that each disc has a carbon footprint of 0.5kg of CO₂.

Sales of 4.1m records produce 1,900 tonnes of CO₂, equal to the annual carbon footprint of 400 people. (For reference, around four million records were sold in the UK the year before the study.)

That said, Keele did point out that vinyl is more sustainable than streaming in terms of energy usage if the record is listened to "repeatedly", which the university defines very precisely as being more than 27 times.

Manufacturers are also bending over backwards to make vinyl records more sustainable. Examples include using eco-friendly biovinyl instead of PVC, grinding discarded records into pellets to make new ones (pictured), repurposing ocean plastic waste to manufacture discs, and reducing the weight of each record.

So whether it's music to your ears or not, it certainly sounds as if everything is being done to ensure vinyl is back for good.

Vinyl aside, find out how Taylor Swift has helped boost the American economy